In the last few years, Nicaragua, as well as many other parts of Central America has been hit hard by the effects of climate change, with heavier rains falling each year. Thousands of people have been displaced and the recovery process has been slow. In the past year, I’ve been writing about the situation in the community of El Colorado, Nicaragua, one of the five communities that makes up La FEM that was destroyed by a landslide in 2010. A year and a half ago all 44 homes in comunidad El Colorado were washed away as a result of a landslide on the mountain that houses these families. But finally, a hopeful new rebuilding project awaits and I’m excited to report that I’ve decided to stay in Esteli and work as the project coordinator to help carry out the large task of rebuilding this community.

The process has been a rather slow one, and even after spending a year and a half displaced by heavy rains for the second year in a row, the community still remains in dire conditions. To this day, the local government has done nothing to move these families to more dignified homes. Although the mayor has plans to move 24 homes to a very small piece of land nearby the community (the money we’ve raised at JC will go towards the purchase of that piece of land), there are still 20 families that have remained outside of those plans.

As they often do, FEM has responded independently by soliciting funds for a larger project from the Basque government in Spain. The $200,000 integral project was recently approved (and awarded to FEM out of 200 applicants!), which has plans to improve the conditions of 20 families through construction of new homes in a safer location, as well as providing land titles for each of these women head of households. The project will offer each woman a 1/2 manzana of land to build a new home as well as to provide space for a diversified plot of land which will include coffee plants, medicinal plants, fruit trees, precious woods, green houses for vegetable production, and materials needed to raise pigs and chickens. Workshops on women's empowerment, care for the environment and management of a nearby primary forest, along with strengthening their cooperative organization, and links to alternative markets are included in the plans. The project hopes to turn a crisis into an opportunity, allowing for the advancement and both the individual and collective empowerment of the women organized in this community.

For the next six months, I will be working with la FEM helping to organize a powerful team of different actors including the local government, civil engineers, topographers, community members, agriculture technicians, local NGOs, etc. There's no doubt that this project will be challenging and slow moving, as we maneuver the challenges of their inept government and its ability to provide basic needs for its people as well as the struggles that relate to the history of land throughout the country. In spite of the many challenges, I'm looking forward to digging deeper into the realities of the producers we work with and leave with a better understanding of how to work towards overcoming with political, historical, climatological, and economic issues.

I will be blogging here regularly throughout the project, so check back for updates on our advancements. Peace.